The present invention relates generally to assemblies for cooking human food and, more particularly, to an assembly having heated rollers mounted in a grill housing and having a heating control system.
Grills using heated rollers to cook certain food items with elongated shapes, such as hot dogs and sausages are commonly used in convenience stores, amusement parks and entertainment venues. These grills utilize a drive mechanism to rotate the rollers and, in turn, any food items placed on the rollers.
Prior art grills generally utilize what is referred to as an infinite control. Rather than functioning as a true temperature control, an infinite control varies the percentage of time that the heating elements in the rollers are on. The design of the infinite controls used on most prior art grills is very similar in design to the control knob for an electric range top. The control dial is typically marked with an arbitrary scale, i.e., from 1 to 10. Instead of indicating a particular temperature setting, these numbers represent an input to the heating elements. For example, a setting of 1 might refer to an input in which the heating elements are on 10% of the time, while a setting of 9 might refer to an input in which the heating elements are on 90% of the time. Other prior art grills use a three heat switch having low, medium, and high settings. These grills vary the heat delivered by the rollers by selectively turning the heating elements in certain rollers on or off.
The dial settings of the infinite controls used in the prior art do not directly correspond to the temperature of the food being cooked on the grill. Therefore, operators must depend on experimentation and testing to determine the appropriate infinite control setting for a desired food temperature rather than simply relying on the control setting itself. In addition, since most infinite controls can vary the heating element input from 1% to 100% and the input level has no direct relationship to the actual food temperature, an inexperienced operator may set the control at an input level that is too low, resulting in an unsafe food temperature.
Environmental factors often compound this problem. Because the output of an infinite control remains constant and is not directly related to the temperature of the food being prepared, changes in the environmental conditions surrounding the grill will affect the temperature of the food. For example, when used at an outdoor sports stadium, the same prior art roller grill will require one setting on a warm day in August and a completely different setting on a colder day in November.
In addition, prior art roller grills are limited to separate heating zones at the front and rear of the grill, with no means to vary heating from one side of the grill to the other. This limits the number of heating zones on the grill and, therefore, functionally limits the different food offerings an operator may prepare on a single grill. Due to the current trend for a more diverse product offering on roller grills, this represents a serious limitation of the prior art grills.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.
An aspect of the present invention is to provide a roller grill with a control system that allows the operator to more directly control the temperature of the food being prepared on the grill.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a roller grill with a larger number of separate heating areas that allow different foods to be heated to different temperatures at the same time.
In accordance with the above aspects of the invention, there is provided a roller grill having means for setting a set temperature, at least one temperature sensor mounted in the region of the rollers to measure the temperature of the area surrounding the food being heated on the grill, a temperature display that indicates the temperature of the food area, and a control device that monitors the temperature measured in the area of the rollers and food and adjusts the input to the heating elements to minimize variation of the measured temperature from the set temperature.
In another embodiment, the range from which an operator can select a set temperature is limited from about 140xc2x0 F. to about 170xc2x0 F.
In yet another embodiment, the roller grill also includes a preheat switch that raises the temperature of the grill for a set amount of time to quickly heat the food before serving.
In a further embodiment, the rollers of the grill are provided an offset heating structure in at least one roller, to allow a temperature offset between two sides of the roller, and means for adjusting the temperature offset between the two sides of the roller.
These aspects are merely illustrative aspects of the innumerable aspects associated with the present invention and should not be deemed as limiting in any manner. These and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the referenced drawings.